This paper examines the achievement levels of students undertaking the Tertiary Enabling Program (TEP) at La Trobe University. The TEP is an alternative pathway program that traverses multiple institutions, campuses, and disciplinary areas, and is designed to prepare a diverse student cohort for tertiary study. The Program integrates several…

Australia is in the process of implementing a national geography curriculum to replace the separate state and territory curriculums. The paper describes the process of curriculum development, and identifies the different groups that were involved. These included the board and staff of the national curriculum authority, geography teachers across…

This paper describes the feedback from the configuration and deployment of a Personal Learning Environment & Network (PLE&N) tool to support peer-based social learning for university students and graduates. An extension of an earlier project in which a generic and PLE&N was deployed for all learners, the current PLE&N is a…

This research project explored how academic and professional personnel work together in new ways to deliver the best possible student experience. The project analysed why certain models of good working practice seemed to work well. The research investigated: how the change management process was perceived and managed by key stakeholders; the role…

Collaboration is a hard and challenging endeavor. It takes all the key players to make it happen. This paper discusses our current thinking about school-university collaboration. In it, we define what collaboration involves in the context of universities and schools. Next, we discuss what we believe are the essential benefits of effective…

Everyone--board members, parents, and staff--loves small schools, bur it's no secret that small schools cost more to operate, particularly if administrative and teaching staff cannot be assigned efficiently. If there is a silver lining in this dark contextual cloud, it's that political support for consolidating schools has rarely been better. The…

In 2008, the Centre for Science Education at Sheffield Hallam University teamed up with VT Enterprise (now Babcock International) in their submission of a successful bid to deliver the national STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) Subject Choice and Careers Project. An integral part of the bid was the promotion of equality and…

In January, the author gave a talk at the ASE Annual Conference on future trends in secondary science education. The honour of being asked was soon eclipsed by a sense of trepidation; could future trends be based on past performance? Within the area of secondary science, the author identified seven challenges for the immediate future. (Contains 2…

University governance reforms are very much a reflection of the broader New Public Management reforms that are focusing on increasing efficiency in public organizations. The article deals with how university reform ideas of a generic nature, emphasizing that universities should be treated and reformed like any other public organizations, are…

The first year of one's superintendency is a year like no other. Even those educators who've worked for years in the wings fulfilling high-level duties in the central office find one eye-opener after another when they alone are at the top of the organization's leadership ladder. At the start of the summer in 2010, The School Administrator invited…

In this study, the authors describe a Performance Enhanced Interactive Learning (PEIL) workshop model as a supplement for organic chemistry instruction. This workshop model differs from many others in that it includes public presentations by students and other whole-class-discussion components that have not been thoroughly investigated in the…

Over the past 60 years the internal rate of return (IRR) has become a major tool in investment evaluation. Many executives prefer it to net present value (NPV), presumably because they can more easily comprehend a percentage measure. This article demonstrates that, except in the rare case of an investment that is followed by a single cash return,…

This article describes part of a transition process in teacher education in Trinidad and Tobago. After assisting the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT) in the development of a four-year Bachelor of Education program that replaced the previous system of two-year in-service training at Teachers College, I describe the contested, complex process…

Background: This article reviews challenges to collaboration in school mental health (SMH) and presents practical strategies for overcoming them. Methods: The importance of collaboration to the success of SMH programs is reviewed, with a particular focus on collaboration between school- and community-employed professionals. Challenges to effective…

This research examined the results of SmarterMeasure(TM) test as associated with students' success in online courses. SmarterMeasure(TM) (formally known as the READI, or Readiness for Education At a Distance Indicator) data was collected from students who participated in online classes during the Fall 2010 semester at Southside Virginia Community…